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Very poignant, and sadly, very true. Addiction can, and--unless you get help--likely will destroy you in the end. The sad thing is, this is true for way more than just alchohol (or drugs). Any kind of dependant or abusive behavior can ruin a person.

Both my paternal and maternal grandfathers died from cirrhosis. My dad's dad died as a skidrow derelict in Phoenix in 1969. We didn't know about it for almost three years. My mom's dad had been on the wagon for 12 years before the excesses that he put into his body for the previous 50 years caught up with him. Even though he stopped drinking, it was too late to stop him from getting sick.

Since my divorce and remarriage to another woman, I have stopped being a teetotaller and have a very strict limit as to what I drink. I do not believe there should be "social" drinking. That term always bothered me. I do believe that it helps the body relax when eating. I have less of a tendency to choke on a piece of meat when I have beer or wine with my meal.

I think we have a worse problem in America even than drinking and that is overeating. We cannot stop from eating and many of us NEVER stop eating. One thing you notice when you travel around the world and then you come back to America (and this is something I warn my Western culture students to be aware of before visiting America): We have too many fat people.

At 5'10" and 180 pounds (yes, I have lost THAT MUCH WEIGHT!!), the Vietnamese still think of me as being tall and fat. My wife always posts pictures of what I looked like when I came here to remind everyone how thin I have gotten in the past year.

Time for a bump.

I always wonder how many suicides, deadly accidents, abused spouses and children, destroyed careers, etc. never would have happened if someone never had taken that first drink. Some can control it, others can't - most don't know which they are until after they roll the dice. Quite a risk.

The simple rule:

Avoid excess.

Doug "sober and at a reasonable weight to boot"